Here's a new one....

[jim]

XP Pro, fully patched. Everything seems to be working just fine....except
when I right click the desktop, click "Properties" then click the "Desktop"
tab - then the "Display Properties" box freezes.

I can click "Themes", "Screen Saver", Appearance" and "Settings" with no
apparent problem.

Anybody seen this little gem before?

jim

 

[Devil_Himself]

Click Start- Run and run these commands one-by-one :
regSvr32 /i shimgvw.dll
regSvr32 /i mshtml.dll

regSvr32 /i shell32.dll
regSvr32 /i themeui.dll

 

[jim]

Click Start- Run and run these commands one-by-one :
regSvr32 /i shimgvw.dll
regSvr32 /i mshtml.dll

This one gave an error saying the entrypoint could not be found.

The others ran fine but still in the same mess.

 

[Devil_Himself]

Copy "shimgvw.dll" And ""mshtml.dll" From \Windows\system32\dllcache to
\windows\system32

 

[jim]

I did the copies and it is still freezing. It freezes when I click the
Desktop tab in the Display Properties window.

I tried to run scannow to replace bad files, but it insists on meinserting
an SP2 Updated CD which I don't have (I downloaded SP2). Know of an SP2 CD
image that I may be able to use with scannow?

jim

 

[Devil_Himself]

Have you tried registering them after Copying them to system32 folder

 

[jim]

I finally got it fixed. Here's how I fixed it....

When I first ran "sfc /scannow" (from Run on the start menu), it showed me a
message that I read as needing the Service Pack 2 CD for XP. Well, I didn't
have a Service Pack 2 CD. I did have an install CD for XP that had SP2
integrated into the setup, but that wasn't what it seemed to be asking for.

After some searching, I re-ran "sfc /scannow" from Run on the start menu
with my XP install CD (with SP 2 integrated) in my CD drive. Then I
restarted my PC and now it doesn't freeze on the Destop tab in Display
properties.

Thanks for all of your help dev.

jim

(now I just need to run Winows update and make sure all of my apps are still
in working order ; ) )

 

[jim]

I acted too soon. It didn't freeze as it normally did and it showed the
tab. So, before I clicked on the tab and started to actually use it, I
proclaimed the problem solved. It isn't.

Althought the tab now shows immediately, the rundll32.exe image still takes
up to 50% of CPU usage and does nothing more than show the tab.

When I mouse over it, I get an hourglass and no response from Display
Properties.

This is maddening. I even removed all wallpapaers from
C:\windows\web\wallpaper to see if there was a bad file that was the
culprit.

If I have replaced all system files, removed all files from the wallpaper
directory I don't have a clue waht it could be.

I am running a system scan for viruses and malware and for Windows updates.
I will update this thread when I have finished.

Thanks for your patience.

jim

 

[jim]

No viruses. No malware. No updates needed. No solution.

jim

 

[jim]

I ran Process explorer and found that the execution of rundll32 is done
using the following....

"C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe" /d
C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl

I don't know if this will help.....but knowing it couldn't hurrt.

I may have to re-install XP to see if that helps. I'll do a backup tonight
and try it tomorrow.

jim

 

[jim]

Update: I attempted to do a repair using the install CD but it kept hanging
at 37 minutes left and started rebooting the Pc and restarting the
installation - only to hang at 37 minutes left each time.

Thinking the problem may be hardware related, I first reimaged my drive from
the backup that I made before trying the XP repair, then I ran a thorough
disk check on C and found no errors.

Still at square one.

jim

 

[jim]

BTW, I can change wallpapers using the software for my nvidia card.

jim

 

[jim]

Updated the nvidia drivers - still in the same hole.

jim

 

[jim]

After leaving the "frozen" Display Properties box up for over 30 minutes, I
came back to find it not frozen at all. It seems that, instead of loading
the default %SystemDir%\Windows\Web\Wallpaper folder's contents into the
listbox that shows you the wallpapers that you can choose, it is loading
some 1800-2000+ wallpapers that I have in a completely different directory.

I renamed the directory of 1830 of the photos that it listed and restarted
the PC. It still listed them all.

I changed the registry key for what folder to use as the default wallpaper
folder, and the damned thing still loads over 2000 images into the listbox.

Windows.....the only thing worse is anything else.

jim

 

[jim]

Well, it doesn't freeze any more. Not even sure why it doesn't.

I had actually given up on it and just moved on - as it wasn't really
affecting my work, it just made me wonder what else may be wromg.

And it is showing the tiles that come with Windows, and the sole wallpaper
that I left in the %SystemRoot%\Web\Wallpaper folder.

Don't know why it works now....but it does.

Thanks for everyone's input!

jim